today’s objectives: explain the origins and characteristics of the northern renaissance

TODAY’S OBJECTIVES:• Explain the origins and characteristics of the Northern Renaissance.• Trace the impact of the Renaissance on German and Flemish painters.• Profile key northern Renaissance writers.• Explain how the invention of the printing press spread Renaissance ideas.

The Northern Renaissance

Renaissance Ideas Spread to Northern Europe

1. What factors led to the beginning of the Renaissance in northern Europe?• the northern population began to recover from the plague.• Hundred Years’ War finally ended.• cities were growing rapidly• city merchants were becoming wealthy enough to become “patrons”•More monarchs were patrons of the arts than in Italy

PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins High School

Monarchs in England and in France (such as Francis I who hired Italian architects to build his palace at Fontainebleau) supported the arts and introduced Renaissance styles to northern Europe.

Since antiquity it had been scribes and later, monks in the Medieval period, who copied all manuscripts by hand …

Johann Gutenberg invented a “printing press” – or, the technique of printing from movable blocks of type letters.

Gutenberg was a 15th-century German craftsman, inventor, and printer. He used hand-set type cast in molds to print multiple copies of manuscripts. Copying now became mechanized and much faster. The invention of movable-type printing facilitated an easier exchange of ideas throughout Europe and helped spread the ideas of the Renaissance.


UNTIL …



Gutenberg's invention did not make him rich, but it laid the foundation for the first commercial mass production of books. The success of printing meant that books soon became cheaper, and the previously uneducated lower classes of the population could now afford them and it inspired them to learn to read, increasing literacy. More than ever before, it spread news more quickly and enabled people to follow debates and discussions of matters that concerned them. Consequently, the printed book also led to more stringent attempts at censorship. This was a sign that it was felt by those in authority to be dangerous and challenging to their position.PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins High School




Renaissance Ideas Spread to Northern Europe; Text, p. 427; Packet p. 18

The Gutenberg Bible – one of only 5 existing copies, purchased by the University of Texas

Harry Ransom Center museum in 1978.

It is said that other great historical events such as the Protestant

Reformation of the 1500s, the Scientific Age of Enlightenment of the 1600s, and the French

Revolution in the 1700s would likely have not

been such transforming forces had it not been

for the invention of the printing press. Explain

why historians would make such an assertion.

• Political Ideas / Movements / helped spark Revolutions !• Scientific Ideas / Classical Education

People begin to read Bible for themselves

Examples: • Luther’s Ideas about Reforming the Church

• Spreads Ideas and Learning• Increased Literacy• Made books cheaper and accessible to the mass population


It is said that other great historical events such as the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, the Scientific Age of Enlightenment of the 1600s, and the French Revolution in the 1700s

would likely have not been such transforming forces had it not been for the invention of the printing press. Explain why historians would make such an assertion.



2. How did the invention of the printing press help spread learning and Renaissance ideas?

Lowered price of books; more people could afford them; books now written in the vernacular so people who had no classical education (in Latin) could now read the classics; this all led to increased literacy as well as ordinary people’s awareness of what was happening in their larger world.


How did they put pictures in books

now printed with the movable type press?

Artistic Ideas Spread to Northern Europe

3. Albrecht Durer – produced woodcuts and engravings whose realism influenced other northern artists. His works were not just religious subject matter but showed classical mythology and realistic landscapes.

“Knight, Death, and the Devil”

-engraving by Albrecht Durer



4. Jan van Eyck – developed new creative techniques to achieve most realistic detail with oil-based paints, applying several layers to create variety of colors and 3-D appearance to clothing / jewelry.


“Wedding Portrait” * -Jan van Eyck

Van Eyck, JanThe Madonna with Canon van der Paele1436 Oil on panel 122 x 157 cm Het Groeninge Museum, Brugge


4. Jan van Eyck – developed new creative techniques to achieve most realistic detail with oil-based paints, applying several layers to create variety of colors and 3-D appearance to clothing / jewelry.


“Wedding Portrait” * -Jan van Eyck


5. Pieter Bruegel the Elder – Painted mostly scenes of everyday life – focused on realism and individual characteristics. Produced paintings that taught morals, illustrated proverbs, and strongly protested Spanish rule over his country.


“Children’s Games” * - Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Bruegel’s “Netherland’s Proverbs,” 1559

Bruegel’s “The Triumph of Death,” 1562


5. Pieter Bruegel the Elder – Painted mostly scenes of everyday life – focused on realism and individual characteristics. Produced paintings that taught morals, illustrated proverbs, and strongly protested Spanish rule over his country.


“Children’s Games” * - Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Northern Writers Try to Reform Society

“Northern Renaissance writers also adopted the ideas of Humanism... however, some gave it a more religious slant.” Textbook, p.425

6. Desiderius Erasmus – a Christian humanist, wrote “The Praise of Folly” which poked fun at people’s human flaws such as greedy merchants, arrogant priests, etc. He believed mankind could improve society by reading the Bible and that Christianity was about “the heart” and not a bunch of “rules and ceremonies” done in Church.

Erasmus was from the Dutch region of Holland and received many honors in his lifetime. He was often critical of the “mindless” rituals Christians performed during church services and their ignorance about the actual Bible itself.

“It is the chief point of happiness when a man is willing to be what he is - not what others would have him be.” ~ Erasmus, 1527.

Examining a Primary Source: “In Praise of Folly,” packet p. 17a – 17b


An illustration Albrecht Durer did of someone he admired in his own lifetime –

the Dutch Humanist, Erasmus.



7. Thomas More – an English humanist concerned about society’s problems. He wrote “Utopia,” about an ideal model of society.

Statue of More in Chelsea, London

More served as Speaker in the House of Commons and Lord Chancellor during the reign of King Henry VIII of England. When Henry began his plan to separate the Church of England from the Catholic Pope, More defended Catholicism and the struggle with his king would lead eventually to his trial for treason and his beheading in 1535 at the Tower of London.

The events are dramatized in a classic film entitled “A Man for All Seasons.”

Utopia is Greek for “no place” – More’s sense of humor is shown since this perfect society he gives this name to clearly did not exist.



8. William Shakespeare – English playwright whose plays examine human flaws but also express the Renaissance view of humanity’s potential. Many of his plays focus on Greek or Roman subjects and classical plots.


The Globe TheaterShakespeare had this “theater in the round” built on the banks of the Thames River in London, 1599 – 1614.

The famous Globe theater was recently rebuilt in London to the same specifications as

Shakespeare haddesigned…every detail was copied even the types of building materials, theater seating (standing!), and the paint used in theoriginal 17th c. building.


today’s objectives: explain the origins and characteristics of the northern renaissance

Documents

type printing

printing press

technique of printing

northern population

northern europe1

success of printing

northern europe text

renaissance styles